The present invention relates generally to ammunition storage containers, and also to ammunition storage systems including such containers.
Several types of ammunition storage containers are presently used to transport and store ammunition in tanks and other forms of armored vehicles. The most common type of container is simply a wooden box in which one or two rounds of ammunition are packed, each individual round being wrapped by a cardboard cylinder. The wooden boxes are usually stored in packs of 12 or more on standard pallets. Such an arrangement, however, is far from satisfactory, since it requires considerable labor and time to transfer ammunition stores to the individual armored vehicles. Thus, the wooden boxes first have to be de-palletized by separating and removing each of the individual boxes from the pallet; each box then has to be opened; the cardboard cylinders containing the ammunition rounds have to be removed; finally, the cardboard cylinders, which are usually sealed by a self-adhesive tape, have to be opened in order to permit removal of the individual ammunition rounds. Moreover, this arrangement provides a low degree of protection against damage during handling, as the boxes are easily broken if dropped. Also, the existing containers offer very little protection against fire since the wooden boxes burn easily. They also offer very little protection against penetration of water, such as may occur in prolonged outside exposure during adverse weather conditions. Finally, these known containers are not well adapted for the internal ammunition storage racks in tanks or other armored vehicles.
More recently, another type of ammunition storage container has been developed offering a higher degree of fire protection than the conventional containers. One of the disadvantages of this more recent container, however, is that, it is large and heavy, being adapted to contain four ammunition rounds, and therefore is not easily adaptable for transporting ammunition outside the armored vehicle. Moreover, it offers little protection against the penetration of water.